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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Warner leans so far to the right he falls on his face

Mark Warner doesn't understand the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. He thinks that only 2% of Americans qualify for them. What's even funnier than that though is looking at the tax cuts through that outrageously inaccurate prism- he still supports them. From the Register.

"Even though the Bush tax cuts only applied to the top 2 percent of Americans, what I think the Kerry campaign missed was that the other 98 percent of Americans still aspired to get to the point in their life where they could qualify for the tax cuts."WHAT? First, the Bush tax cuts took millions of Americans completely off the tax rolls (those are low income folks). It reduced the marriage penalty and increased the per child tax credit. Those tax cuts helped the working class just as much as they did those in the TTB.

Warner is now the only politician in memory to support tax cuts exclusively for the rich. (Warner's a pretty rich guy himself). I wonder which America John Edwards will say that Mark Warner belongs to? Nice start to the campaign Governor.

7 Comments:

Warner does NOT support the Bush tax cuts. He was discussing the tactical question of how Democrats can best sell a saner, more fiscally responsible budget policy. One quote from the speech that didn't make it into the Register (but was recorded by my fellow Forward Together staffer Lars Anderson) gives some more context: "With regards to the Bush tax cuts, in a time of war, to give the most successful in our country a tax break is not morally right and not economically right."

The AP story on the talk gives more context: "It's hard for me to find a business person today and look them in the eye and describe how this administration in Washington is fiscally conservative, or how this administration in Washington can put together a reasonable balance sheet for our country," Warner said.

"Warner met over breakfast with leaders of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, a coalition of key business leaders that leans Republican but has occasionally been swayed by Democrats. He argued that an ideologically driven agenda in Washington doesn't make sense from a bottom-line perspective.

"I think this community understands we're in a knowledge-based economy, but we've got a crowd in Washington that rejects stem cell research, rejects global warming," said Warner. "That doesn't move our country forward."

You are making some strong conclusions from one single quote in a fairly short newspaper article. Haven't we all been misquoted or quoted selectively so as to completely misrepresent what was actually said?

I've seen Warner a couple of times. He's a very impressive candidate. He could also be a true uniter - something this country desperately needs. Of course, it may be hard for someone like him to win the D nomination is today's polarized atmosphere. Some conservative observers have said Warner would be R's worst nightmare as an opponent.

Mike Huckabee 10-9
Mitt Romney 3-1
Fred Thompson 9-1
John McCain 9-1
Rudy Giuliani 12-1
Ron Paul 12-1
Duncan Hunter 98-1
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